@bombedyermom: Axii is pretty great. I've been loving making everyone fight each other and then just taking out the last one standing. Its also really affective against certain monsters. It will calm them for a period and you can just wail on them.

@bombedyermom: I invested in Delusion early on, but I ended up respeccing out of it, as skill slots are a precious commodity and there were too many other skills I wanted to use. I might try out the mind control skill when I can, but right now Axii is probably my least used Sign. (It had been Yrden for awhile, but I'm finding more and more uses for it.)

Does upgrading the skill let you get more than one hit in before they recover? That's the main reason I haven't found it that useful. I would have thought high sign intensity would affect that, but it doesn't appear to.

Depending on how effective you are with it different things can happen. I have been able to full on stagger enemies with Axii which then allows me to do an instant kill for example. Also there is all the times it comes up in conversation.

@zeik: The first one is mostly just to calm and for dialogue. The second tier is what gets you the good bits of the sign usage. It allows you to make them fight for you. And it stuns them longer allowing you to attack them more than once.

Did a quick scan and didn't see anyone mention this but if you hold down the cast sign button on horseback you will cast aard on Roach which reduces his fear level in combat.

I haven't seen this one mentioned yet: If you're doing a quest with multiple steps that can be completed in any order, you can press R3 to toggle between which objective is actively being tracked.

I figured this out last night when I was lost inside the Baron's house and couldn't find the way out, and my current objective wasn't showing a path out. Switching to the second objective showed me the way out.

Do you know if you have to have on my active upgrade tree (right side of character screen) for the dialogue options to to be available? Or are they available once the points are put into it (left side of character screen)?

@karkarov: It does show up in coversations fairly often, but it doesn't really seem like it unlocks any unique dialoge paths or rewards, it just seems like a shortcut to get what you want quicker. It's not quite like speech in a Bethesda RPG, where it's the difference between getting something from an NPC or not at all. And to be honest, I think I prefer the more direct approach to dealing with people in this game. It feels more Witcher-y.

@capnthrash: I'm not quite sure what you mean by left side and right side of the character screen, but Delusion only works if it is slotted into a skill slot. The options show up in coversations regardless, but if you don't have the skill at the proper level slotted it will be red and you can't select it.

o.o

Edit: I gotta try that.

If you want to make use of decoctions I highly recommend investing at least 1 point in Acquired Tolerance. The base toxicity cap is barely enough to accomodate a single decoction, and if you use even one extra potion (like swallow for example) you'll break the cap and start draining vitality. But that perk will give you quite a bit of extra toxicity tolerance once you've gathered a handful of recipes, allowing you to safely use a decoction and still use some potions if necessary. You don't even necessarily have to equip it all the time if you're hurting for skill slots, as it's only necessary when you're going to use a decoction.

If your stamina runs out while sprinting, jump and continue sprinting again. You won't lose much momentum and it's practically like infinite sprinting.

- When you're underwater, you can one-shot Drowners using your crossbow.

- Using right stick in the inventory / barter screen can quickly switch you from your side to Merchant side (as mentioned before), but can also be used to quickly jump from the bottom of your item list to the five categories you have at the top (up with the right stick).

- If certain merchant does not appear in the place where you expect him to be during the day time, turn your back to his spawn place and then meditate for one hour. He will spawn when you come out of it.

- If certain merchant does not have an option to talk to him, I think that's because the dialogue is not loaded yet. Wait for a few seconds (sometimes longer, like that blacksmith in Blackbough) and the X button prompt will appear. Meditating while not looking at the guy also works sometimes for some reason.

- Matching color of your mutagen to the color of the skill you equip right next to it raises it's power significantly.

- You can actually loot destroyed nests after they blow up. I only found out about it like 20 hours into the game.

- If you accept a Witcher Contract, it's usually a good idea to talk to a guy who posted it right away - that way, you can negotiate your price. Otherwise, if you randomly stumble upon that monster later and kill it (like I do a lot, for some reason), you'll only get the default amount of money.

I know some of these seem very obvious, but sometimes you can randomly miss one bit of tutorial text and not know any of it. Also, I'm playing on PS4 only, not sure if the spawn stuff works the same way on Xbox One or PC.

To clarify this, it's not just the skill next to it, it's all three in that quadrant of the skill screen. So a +150 Vitality Mutagen with three alchemy skills gives you +600.

Just found this out last night. Use the right stick to quickly scroll down through a long list, like alchemy or crafting.

When following tracks using Witcher senses, I found it to be much easier to look at the minimap instead of the actual tracks on the ground. Unfortunately this doesn't work with scents, as they don't show up on the map.

Aard extinguishes fires, even enemies who are on fire.

Quen won't absorb damage from a lack of oxygen, such as drowning or poisoned. If you run out of breath - especially deep underwater, you're pretty much boned.

All the loading screen tips you've seen are archived in the glossary under tutorials.

I think others have said this but I want to reiterate it. If you are constantly feeling short on crowns, a very good way to make some money is to deconstruct sea shells to get pearls. These can be sold to blacksmiths for an incredible sum.

If you make your way to Novigrad, there is one merchant (near the place where they burnt people at the stake) who sells sea shells (but not by the seashore). There is a blacksmith only a few steps away where you can break down the shells (and sell the pearls). I've found that by the time I run back to the merchant, he has restocked. You can sell roughly 30 black pearls for thousands of crowns and it only costs you a few hundred to buy the same number of shells.

It feels a bit "gamey" to do this over and over so I only did it when I was in dire straights, specifically when I needed food to heal but I didn't have enough money to afford to pay 28 crowns for a chicken.

Lastly, I recommend playing on the difficulty below the hardest (I forget what it's called). The combat is incredibly brutal at points but I loved (hated) the feeling of running around a war-torn landscape desperately searching for food and water (and the money to buy it). I found that it added to the very deliberate and real feeling of the world. The combat also gets much easier once you level up a bit and get better equipment.

To go with what the person above posted.... if you are REALLY having health problems do yourself a favor. Craft Swallow as soon as possible, then make your first priority on leaving White Orchard to find an Herbalist who can sell you patterns for Full Moon and White Raffards Decoction. If possible find the enhanced patterns while you are at it and if you need to buy the mats to make them. Between these three potions you get a vitality buff, a heal over time, and a straight up big heal on use. Those paired with good play and smart use of Quen should take care of all your heal needs outside of the worst scenarios.

For those looking for even more specific help....

There is a herbalist that sells everything I just posted about right outside the Novigrad Gate of Oxenfurt. Oxenfurt is the medium sized city on the small island east of Hanged Man's Tree and the herbalist is just a slight bit north east of the gate in one of those groups of houses on the hills outside town.

I don't know how much use this will actually be to anyone, or if it's already been mentioned, but (at least on PS4) if you tap the run button, then pause for a bit and tap it again, repeatedly, you can run at full speed without losing any stamina, as long as your bar is full when you start.

The cooldown on stamina outside of battle is so minimal though that I wonder why they even tied sprinting to it in the first place.

If you need to get rid of a good deal of weight, check your crossbow bolts. I had gathered up around 20 "weight units" of bolts that I'd never use.

@ares42: One that topic where is a dude that buys those friggin things? I swear to god I have once seen a merchant able to buy them *they were not red marked) but have not been able to find him again since. I wouldn't mind just dropping them, if they didn't leave a marker on the ground.

Gwent question here. What have you guys found to be the optimum amount of cards in a deck? I try to keep mine around 28, been working well so far.

@tennmuerti: no idea, I just dropped mine. The loot won't persist, so you can just leave and come back later if it bothers you. On the same note I learned the hard way that merchant inventory doesn't persist either. Sold a bunch of "junk" that I had been holding on to to one specific vendor thinking I could buy it back later if I actually needed it.

Just beat the high stakes gwent tournament at level 12 easily and with no save scumming. Here are some gwent tips:

- The name of the game is having more cards than your opponent. Get as many spies medics and decoys as you can. Play the spies as early as possible so that you know what cards you'll have. Play decoys to steal spies placed by your opponent. If you run out of decoys use medics the next round to recover spies your opponent places the previous round.

- Whenever playing the nilfgaardians or the elves, throw the first round. Your goal should be to play all your spies and bait the AI into wasting as many cards as possible. This can work against the northern realms and monsters too but it's less effective because of their perks.

- Hold onto your strongest cards as long as possible in a given round. You want to make sure that your opponent doesn't have scorch cards before playing them. Almost all of the late game opponents will have this card. I lost two 32 strength cards (bonded 8s with a commanders horn) once at the end of a game when my opponent played a scorch card as his last card. Never again.

- Like I said above, buy the cards from the white orchard inn bartender ASAP or you will lose the opportunity to do so forever. I still used 3 of those cards in my final tourney.

The last two "big city players" missions won't open up until you reach the bathhouse mission in nilfgaard. The "old friends" missions won't open until slightly before that when you meet and play zoltan

- The recommended level next to the high stakes tourney mission is there for a reason. It's possible to do while under leveled, just be aware that it's a bit more involved than simply playing cards so make sure you are prepared if you do it when you are underleveled.

Don't forget to loot monster den's after you have destroyed them as they can drop loot.

I don't have anything to add, but wanted to give a hearty thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. The stuff in here is gold.

I just noticed this yesterday, but one of the few HUD options they have turned off by default is "Witcher Senses on Minimap" which displays the path of stuff you're Witcher Sensing as you witchier sense it. Even scents.

You're a boss.

Apparently custom crossbow bolts can dramatically improve your crossbow's effectiveness as a combat weapon. I had been ignoring them, because the crossbow didn't seem like it had much use besides knocking aerial enemies to the ground or fighting underwater, but I finally made some exploding bolts and tested it out on an Archgriffin several levels above me. Holy shit, the difference was huge. It took off like 1/5 of his health with a single shot, thanks to the added fire damage.

@bceagles128 tips on Gwent are great. In addition:

• To get good at Gwent you have to play Gwent, lots. Duh, I know, but it is crucial to building decks. Nearly every merchant/blacksmith/herbalist you come across will give you a card if you win against them. So play EVERYONE you can and don't give up until you win (unless you are getting trounced, then come back later).
• Buy every card you can until you start running into duplicates that aren't valuable to you. This will not happen for a while.
• I almost always throw the first round.
• I always keep my unit card count at the minimum (22) while stacking it with the best cards I have available. Having a deck with 22 good cards and 10 shitty ones just increases the chance that you will draw a shitty one. Keep your deck lean and packed with the best shit you have.
• I almost never have weather cards in my deck. YMMV with this tactic, but I have never found them to be all that useful. I would much rather have clear weather cards to throw near the end of the match in case my opponent has tossed out a bunch of weather cards. They usually will do that at the end of the match.
• Medics are most effective when bringing back a card that has some additional ability. That way the cards ability is used twice. For example, I have a card that kills the strongest card in my opponents first row when played. I will often play that card during the first round, forcing my opponent to have to play more cards to catch up, throw the round, then use a medic in the second or third round to bring it back and fuck their shit up again. Very satisfying.
• On that note, any card that says it will destroy the "strongest" card when played will destroy multiple cards as long as their strength is equal. Example, your opponent has four 6 strength cards and a 4 strength card in the first row and you play a card that kills the strongest card in the first row, all four 6 strength cards will be destroyed. For that reason, I usually wait until the round is almost over to play those cards because there is a greater chance your opponent will have duplicate strength cards on the board.
• You get the really good cards for playing against opponents that are Gwent quest related.

I really like Gwent, if it is not appealing to you, I would say skip it entirely. No bullshit, you have to play it LOTS to build good decks. When I first got to Novigrad I spent HOURS running around and playing Gwent with every merchant I could find.

@tothenines: @obikwiet: I think the ideal number of cards can depend on the type of deck you're building. Especially monster decks, which rely heavily on cards with the Muster ability. Any card that has Muster you want to pack your deck full of as many of those cards as you can, because once one of those cards is layed down all others of its type also get put down, regardless of whether they are in your hand or not. (Ideally you only want one of those cards in your hand so the rest are a free bonus.)

I'm the opposite when it comes to weather cards. I tend to drop the clear weather card from my decks entirely and use the weather cards myself. Opponents hardly ever seem to use weather cards as effectively as I can, and the right weather can dramatically cripple the opponents power. The cold weather one tends to be especially effective against monster decks, as those have a lot of close combat cards. Also once you get enough hero cards the weather effects aren't as much of a worry.

I use a very different strategy. A northern realms (for the passive) 30 cards deck with a bunch of spies. Tight bond cards (especially in conjunction with a horn) are what i use to waste the opponent. Almost never throw the first round unless i have minimum a 2+ cards advantage in my hand. 1 frost and 1 clear weather are the only two weather cards i keep in my deck.

Should have mentioned I play Norther Realms pretty much exclusively and that's just what helped me out in the early game. I have no idea how hard Gwent gets so my strategy will most certainly change. I don't even have enough monster cards to build a deck yet and they are probably the most intriguing to me. Shame I haven't found that many monster cards yet.

@tothenines: I run with 25 and have never lost, seem like the perfect number to always draw what you need, or at least have a spy in your opening hand to get more cards. This is as a Northern Faction using the "Battle Horn your Siege Line" Foltest. Love that hero skill so much.

You can parry some enemies you can't block.

Saw this on a loading screen tip and haven't tried it yet, but apparently if you parry and counterattack a Grave Hag it will cut off her tongue and she can't poison you anymore.

Also, there's an herbalist in a shack just north of Oxenfurt (the isle on the eastern edge of Velen) that sells lots of good alchemy recipes, including Golden Oriole, Whale, Moon Dust and Enhanced Swallow to name a few. I'd highly recommend seeking him out, but the recipes aren't cheap.

The Echidna decoction + Whirl seems perhaps a tad OP. The decoction heals you whenever you use skills that drains stamina and for whatever reason that seems to equate to instantaneous full health when activating Whirl.

At a certain point you have a side mission that requires you to wear a mask... So far it seems you can keep this mask on forever... It's purely cosmetic and rad.

@zeik: There is another one that increases your attack power with each blow you land in a fight. I drank one of those before a fight with a ?? red skull enemy, and I had the 100% damage reduction when dodging skill equipped. I beat the enemy in like 18-20 hits. Before using that I would just go to town on this thing and maybe take off a sliver of hits health before it finally killed me. I got something like 900 xp for beating it. Most XP I've ever gotten for doing anything in the game. It was one of the level 33 contracts. I was level 15.

Important tip from the loading screen: "During the Time of White Frost, do not eat the yellow snow."

I have pretty much the same strategy, except 3 cards more as I mentioned before. Also never lost? Thats impressive! I bank on winning my first round with my siege cards and that leader ability you mentioned, then hopefully I will have a few spy cards to use once my opponent passes, if he does not pass then I usually use my spies the second round and lose that one, then hopefully I can finish him off with my hero cards or regular beefy ones I can buff with a battle horn.

I am a bit lost on what special cards to use. I have 3x battlehorns, 1 fog card, 1 frost, 1 clear weather. I like having the clear weather because it sucks having my siege line affected by the rain card.

I haven't run across any decoy card sellers or anyone I can win one from, but I am not sure how useful they are in a northern deck anyway.

@zeik awe man, I like to have at least one clear weather, it eases my mind a little. But anyway, I only use a northern deck so far, I haven't got enough diversity in the other ones to feel like I could build a proper deck. Nilfgaard is close though.

@tothenines: Decoys are amazing. They counter spies (unless it's that fucking Avallach), double the use of your medics and dragon, help baiting the AI. They are one of the most useful cards in gwent if used properly

I have never won a game of Gwent in about 10 attempts, I am that bad.

I lost the tutorial due to the nilfgardian draw=win perk which pissed me off. Came back and bought the hero card Foltest from the innkeep but the tutorial guy was gone, and then stuff happened at the inn which sends you to the next story part.

So now I've been trying to beat the nilfgardian noble at the emperors place, I've lose like 9 times in a row - how are you guys so much better at this than me?

----

Also are you guys speccing the upgrade tree with 4 different colour mutagens for the four seperate sections, seems logical to me. Unless you want to go full mage / blue

It needs to be active (Right side), I took it off at one point to try something else and the Axii dialog was grayed out. I thought maybe I had to upgrade it to a new level, but no. I reloaded, put it in my active slot and it worked,

No, I did not know you can swipe to go to the map! This changes everything!!!!

@nrain: If I remember correctly, that guy has a pretty good deck compared to what you probably have at this point. You might wanna save him for later and go play against innkeepers, blacksmiths and armorers in the towns in Velen, buy available cards at sellers, and then come back to him later.

Not sure if anyone has noticed this(I haven't read through the thread...) but I noticed that if you press jump before landing, Geralt does a roll instead of landing on his feet. I've been experimenting with it lightly since the threshold for taking way too much fall damage seems to be about 14 inches and I do seem to be taking less damage, or none at all, if I press jump before I land to roll.

EDIT: I just ran a few more tests and this seems to definitely be the case!

@tothenines: I only use 3 special cards. One Decoy, one clear weather, and one scorch. Decoy is an amazing card for a few reasons. You can bounce medic cards to get even more units back in rounds 2 and 3, you can bounce spies played on your side and play them back, and I use it alot to bounce a dragon card I have that is pretty much Scorch on a 7 attack stick. I dont use battle horns since my leader ability is it's own battle horn, don't feel the need to waste a slot with one.

At any point in the game, the best regular armor I can craft at that point seems better than the latest Witcher armor I discovered, because that amazing Griffin armor I just discovered has only 75 points of armor while the best regular armor I'm able to craft has 102 points. But the Griffin armor has great buffs against monster/elemental damage! But the regular armor has 30 points more protection! If only I could mix the former's buffs with the latter's armor rating!

75-rating armor set with 20% protection from monster damage + 20% protection from elemental

VS.

102-rating armor set with 20% slashing + 20% bludgeoning + 20% piercing

I always choose the latter because armor rating reigns supreme. This renders all the Witcher sets useless.

Tips?

@artelinarose: Huh, I thought the roll was just automatic if you fell from a certain height. Good to know. Fall damage blows on the higher difficulties.